Pittsburgh’s issues with lead didn’t happen overnight. In this timeline, you can learn about concerns over water quality, leadership at the city’s water authority and what’s being done to address the problems, dating back to 2012.

Natasha Vicens
Natasha is PublicSource's creative director. She runs the organizations visuals team, edits and produces interactive graphics, data visualizations and web packages for PublicSource. She manages the website... More by Natasha Vicens
There is another culprit in the story of lead in our water: the lead industry. For decades after the lead companies – including NL Industries, ASARCO and Eagle Picher – knew that lead pipes could cause lead poisoning they continued to sell and promote lead pipes. (see The Lead Industry and Lead Water Pipes: “A Modest Campaign”; Am J Public Health. 2008;98:1584–1592) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2509614/